I often carry my little one in a wrap, so I needed something to keep his feet warm. I knitted this pattern before and loved it, so that was my starting point. But I wanted something with fair isle, to have an extra thick fabric. So I improvised, and this is what I ended up with! Perfect for my little one.

I made so many modifications that these aren’t really Ruth’s baby booties anymore. Here’s what I did. I hope I included all mods.

Row 1-10: I followed the pattern as written, in brown.
Row 11: As written, in blue. Join ends and continue knitting in the round.
Row 12-17: Garter stitch in the color pattern (A).
Row 19: As written, in blue but with green carried along.
Row 20-33: As written, in the color pattern (B).
Row 35: Sl 1, k3, kfb, k to end, in blue.
Row 36-38: As written (but in the round), in green.

Cut yarn without casting off. Slip half of the stitches to the other needle until you’re in the middle at the front.

Row 39: Join the blue yarn and purl the first row. You’re now going to knit back and forth again. Mark the middle stitch at the back.
Row 40-51: Knit in the color pattern (C). In every rs row, kfb in the first stitch after the edge stitch, in the stitch before and after the middle stitch and in the second to last stitch. At the back, always increase in the green stitches. Once or twice this means you’ll have to increase at two stitches from the middle one.

BO in blue.

Pick up stitches from the top edge, under your cast-off. Knit 8 rows of 2x2 ribbing, in green. BO in pattern.

Seam the bottom. Weave in an I-chord (I used a single crochet chain) through the holes, and sew in a zipper.